Hudson: In defense of a free press

Thursday

Freedom of the press means we get it all: good news, bad news, real news, bias news and false news. Our job then as free and informed people is to sift through it all and get to the truth.

“Why should freedom of speech and freedom of press be allowed? Why should a government which is doing what it believes to be right allow itself to be criticized” — Vladimir Lenin, Russian dictator

Some people are actually dying for a free press.

Twenty-eight journalists so far in 2018. Women and men who went out one day to investigate a drug dealer, or learn more about official corruption, who wrote a critical opinion piece about a president or dared to challenge in print some religious or social orthodoxy. They did their jobs: took pen to paper, pecked away on a keyboard, met an anonymous source on a lonely street corner, stood up in front of the cameras as the bombs fell and the protests rang out. And then they died. They were murdered by people and powers threatened by the power of the freedom to report the news.

Most of these deaths happened in nations we would expect to be hostile to press freedom, places of terror and repressive governments, nations torn apart by war or drugs, societies where the ideal of true freedom of the press is a myth. Ten journalists died in Afghanistan, four in Mexico, and one each in Columbia, Syria and Libya. But so too: journalists in India, Slovakia and Brazil died and four journalists in the United States as well. Last June 28th, in what police called a targeted attack, a gunman walked into the offices of the Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Md., and opened fire. The shooter was angry about a story written about him and so he killed those he deemed “guilty” with a loaded shotgun.

The 28th death of 2018 has yet to be officially confirmed as a murder, but it may turn out to be the most infamous and gruesome of the year, the recent passing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. On Oct. 2nd, he walked into the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, and was never seen again. The fact that Khashsoggi was critical in print and public of the murderous and misogynistic monarchy that rules Saudi Arabia with blood-soaked hands, led directly to his disappearance. Some reports say Khashoggi was tortured first and then killed, his body dismembered for quick and secret disposal.

Some people are actually dying for a free press.

And being jailed. And being arrested and held without charges. And receiving death threats. And this all while toiling away in a craft that is mostly anonymous and filled with the drudge work of tracking down leads and working for months and months on a story that might not pan out and most of the time not being paid much for the work either. But these journalists continue to do their work. To bring light into the dark corners of human behavior. To expose the hypocrisy and corruption of political leaders. To be the watchdog of government, keeping check on the cruel and the clueless, the power hungry and ego driven hacks we too often elect to high office these days.

These journalists are able to work in freedom in the United States because freedom of the press is guaranteed by the Constitution and the rule of law. This in spite of the fact that in 2018 it’s fashionable and vote worthy to call journalists “the enemy of the people.” To threaten journalists with physical harm. To deride any critical story as “fake news” and any laudatory story as “the real story.”

I completely own my bias in support of journalists and journalism having written for newspapers much of the past 25 years. Guilty as charged. Are there clowns and trolls, yellow journalists and trashy news purveyors among the ranks of working journalists? Yes. Is news sometimes slanted left or right? Absolutely. It’s always been so. Freedom of the press means we get it all: good news, bad news, real news, bias news and false news. Our job then as free and informed people is to sift through it all and get to the truth. Not easy but so vital to democracy. Thank God I live in a land where that is still possible.

Some people are actually dying for a free press.

We need to remember this truth and tragedy. The press is not the enemy of the people. At its best the press is courageous and committed, and maybe the last best hope for holding the powerful to account. A free press reminds all kings, both the enthroned and the self-appointed, that the people and not the princes, are what makes a nation truly great and a nation truly free.

But no free press? What is that like? Just ask the people of Saudi Arabia.

The Rev. John F. Hudson is senior pastor of the Pilgrim Church, United Church of Christ, in Sherborn (pilgrimsherborn.org). If you have a word or idea you’d like defined in a future column or have comments, please send them to pastorjohn@pilgrimsherborn.org or in care of the Dover-Sherborn Press (Dover-Sherborn@wickedlocal.com).